The government of Italy is reportedly currently facing a challenge in the form of the case of Cecilia Sala, a prominent Italian journalist who has been detained by Iran.
The government is embroiled in Iran’s shadow conflict with the United States.
On Friday, the Iranian regime reiterated its demand that Italy release Iranian businessman Mohammad Abedini, who was apprehended in Milan last month on behalf of the United States.
The United States accuses Abedini of providing technology for drones that were used by Iranian-backed militants to murder three U.S. soldiers a year ago.
Iran has not explicitly stated that it intends to exchange Sala for Abedini. Nevertheless, Iran’s foreign ministry suggested the connection on Thursday, stating that it had engaged in a “friendly conversation” with Italian diplomats regarding both cases.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who presided over a crisis meeting on the two cases on Thursday, is facing increasing public pressure to expedite Sala’s release.
The family of the 29-year-old Sala, a renowned podcaster and a globe-trotting foreign correspondent for newspaper Il Foglio, has become increasingly concerned about her solitary confinement after learning of the harsh conditions this week.
In phone calls to her mother and fiancé from Tehran’s Evin Prison, which is renowned for housing political prisoners, Sala disclosed that she is currently sleeping on the floor of a cold and barren cell, which is illuminated at all times.
However, if Italy releases Abedini, it runs the risk of provoking U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who is anticipated to reiterate his “maximum pressure” approach to Iran, and undermining Meloni’s efforts to establish herself as one of Trump’s preferred European interlocutors.
For years, Iran has used Western citizens as bargaining assets to secure concessions from the United States and European countries, such as the release of Iranians currently incarcerated in the West for terrorism, money laundering, or other offenses.
The tactic has been replicated by Russia, as evidenced by the arrest of Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich in 2023. Gershkovich was released in August of the previous year as part of a prisoner exchange.
Authoritarian regimes have employed the tactic of detaining foreigners as a tactic of leverage, which has been a challenge for Western countries to address.
Sala was apprehended in Tehran on December 19, shortly after concluding a reporting mission for which she had been granted official authorization from Iran.
Abedini had been apprehended by Italy three days prior to his flight change in Milan.
For an extended period, Iranian government officials have maintained that the judiciary operates autonomously and that they are incapable of intervening in judicial proceedings. In the past year, Iran has released a number of European detainees, some of whom were exchanged for prisoners.
Washington has designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, and the U.S. Justice Department has accused Abedini of unlawfully exporting sophisticated navigation technology from the United States to the organization through a Swiss front company.
The United States accuses Abedini of supplying the technology that was used in a drone attack in Jordan last January, which resulted in the deaths of three U.S. military personnel and the injuries of over 40 others. The allegations against Abedini are false, according to Iran.
[READ MORE: South Korea President Manages to Fend Off Attempt to Arrest Him]
